Business finance

Business finance, the raising and managing of funds by business organizations. Planning, analysis, and control operations are responsibilities of the financial manager, who is usually close to the top of the organizational structure of a firm. In very large firms, major financial decisions are often made by a finance committee. In small firms, the owner-manager usually conducts the financial operations. Much of the day-to-day work of business finance is conducted by lower-level staff; their work includes handling cash receipts and disbursements, borrowing from commercial banks on a regular and continuing basis, and formulating cash budgets.

Financial decisions affect both the profitability and the risk of a firm’s operations. An increase in cash holdings, for instance, reduces risk; but, because cash is not an earning asset, converting other types of assets to cash reduces the firm’s profitability. Similarly, the use of additional debt can raise the profitability of a firm (because it is expanding its business with borrowed money), but more debt means more risk. Striking a balance—between risk and profitability—that will maintain the long-term value of a firm’s securities is the task of finance.

Short-term financial operations

Financial planning and control

Short-term financial operations are closely involved with the financial planning and control activities of a firm. These include financial ratio analysis, profit planning, financial forecasting, and budgeting.

Financial ratio analysis

A firm’s balance sheet contains many items that, taken by themselves, have no clear meaning. Financial ratio analysis is a way of appraising their relative importance. The ratio of current assets to current liabilities, for example, gives the analyst an idea of the extent to which the firm can meet its current obligations. This is known as a liquidity ratio. Financial leverage ratios (such as the debt–asset ratio and debt as a percentage of total capitalization) are used to make judgments about the advantages to be gained from raising funds by the issuance of bonds (debt) rather than stock. Activity ratios, relating to the turnover of such asset categories as inventories, accounts receivable, and fixed assets, show how intensively a firm is employing its assets. A firm’s primary operating objective is to earn a good return on its invested capital, and various profit ratios (profits as a percentage of sales, of assets, or of net worth) show how successfully it is meeting this objective.

Ratio analysis is used to compare a firm’s performance with that of other firms in the same industry or with the performance of industry in general. It is also used to study trends in the firm’s performance over time and thus to anticipate problems before they develop.

Profit planning

Ratio analysis applies to a firm’s current operating posture. But a firm must also plan for future growth. This requires decisions as to the expansion of existing operations and, in manufacturing, to the development of new product lines. A firm must choose between productive processes requiring various degrees of mechanization or automation—that is, various amounts of fixed capital in the form of machinery and equipment. This will increase fixed costs (costs that are relatively constant and do not decrease when the firm is operating at levels below full capacity). The higher the proportion of fixed costs to total costs, the higher must be the level of operation before profits begin, and the more sensitive profits will be to changes in the level of operation.

Financial forecasting

The financial manager must also make overall forecasts of future capital requirements to ensure that funds will be available to finance new investment programs. The first step in making such a forecast is to obtain an estimate of sales during each year of the planning period. This estimate is worked out jointly by the marketing, production, and finance departments: the marketing manager estimates demand; the production manager estimates capacity; and the financial manager estimates availability of funds to finance new accounts receivable, inventories, and fixed assets.

For the predicted level of sales, the financial manager estimates the funds that will be available from the company’s operations and compares this amount with what will be needed to pay for the new fixed assets (machinery, equipment, etc.). If the growth rate exceeds 10 percent a year, asset requirements are likely to exceed internal sources of funds, so plans must be made to finance them by issuing securities. If, on the other hand, growth is slow, more funds will be generated than are required to support the estimated growth in sales. In this case, the financial manager will consider a number of alternatives, including increasing dividends to stockholders, retiring debt, using excess funds to acquire other firms, or, perhaps, increasing expenditures on research and development.

Once a firm’s general goals for the planning period have been established, the next step is to set up a detailed plan of operation—the budget. A complete budget system encompasses all aspects of the firm’s operations over the planning period. It may even allow for changes in plans as required by factors outside the firm’s control.

Budgeting is a part of the total planning activity of the firm, so it must begin with a statement of the firm’s long-range plan. This plan includes a long-range sales forecast, which requires a determination of the number and types of products to be manufactured in the years encompassed by the long-range plan. Short-term budgets are formulated within the framework of the long-range plan. Normally, there is a budget for every individual product and for every significant activity of the firm.

Establishing budgetary controls requires a realistic understanding of the firm’s activities. For example, a small firm purchases more parts and uses more labour and less machinery; a larger firm will buy raw materials and use machinery to manufacture end items. In consequence, the smaller firm should budget higher parts and labour cost ratios, while the larger firm should budget higher overhead cost ratios and larger investments in fixed assets. If standards are unrealistically high, frustrations and resentment will develop. If standards are unduly lax, costs will be out of control, profits will suffer, and employee morale will drop.

One of the principal methods of forecasting the financial needs of a business is the cash budget, which predicts the combined effects of planned operations on the firm’s cash flow. A positive net cash flow means that the firm will have surplus funds to invest. But if the cash budget indicates that an increase in the volume of operations will lead to a negative cash flow, additional financing will be required. The cash budget thus indicates the amount of funds that will be needed or available month by month or even week by week.

A firm may have excess cash for a number of reasons. There are likely to be seasonal or cyclic fluctuations in business. Resources may be deliberately accumulated as a protection against a number of contingencies. Since it is wasteful to allow large amounts of cash to remain idle, the financial manager will try to find short-term investments for sums that will be needed later. Short-term government or business securities can be selected and balanced in such a way that the financial manager obtains the maturities and risks appropriate to a firm’s financial situation.

Accounts receivable

Accounts receivable are the credit a firm gives its customers. The volume and terms of such credit vary among businesses and among nations; for manufacturing firms in the United States, for example, the ratio of receivables to sales ranges between 8 and 12 percent, representing an average collection period of approximately one month. The basis of a firm’s credit policy is the practice in its industry; generally, a firm must meet the terms offered by competitors. Much depends, of course, on the individual customer’s credit standing.

To evaluate a customer as a credit risk, the credit manager considers what may be called the five Cs of credit: character, capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions. Information on these items is obtained from the firm’s previous experience with the customer, supplemented by information from various credit associations and credit-reporting agencies. (See credit bureau.) In reviewing a credit program, the financial manager should regard losses from bad debts as part of the cost of doing business. Accounts receivable represent an investment in the expansion of sales. The return on this investment can be calculated as in any capital budgeting problem.

Inventories

Every company must carry stocks of goods and materials in inventory. The size of the investment in inventory depends on various factors, including the level of sales, the nature of the production processes, and the speed with which goods perish or become obsolete.

Checking inventory of wine casks in the cellars of a northern California winery.

Comstock

The problems involved in managing inventories are basically the same as those in managing other assets, including cash. A basic stock must be on hand at all times. Because the unexpected may occur, it is also wise to have safety stocks; these represent the little extra needed to avoid the costs of not having enough. Additional amounts—anticipation stocks—may be required for meeting future growth needs. Finally, some inventory accumulation results from the economies of purchasing in large quantities; it is always cheaper to buy more than is immediately needed, whether of raw materials, money, or plant and equipment.

There is a standard procedure for determining the most economical amounts to order, one that relates purchasing requirements to costs and carrying charges (i.e., the cost of maintaining an inventory). While carrying charges rise as average inventory holdings increase, certain other costs (ordering costs and stock-out costs) fall as average inventory holdings rise. These two sets of costs constitute the total cost of ordering and carrying inventories, and it is fairly easy to calculate an optimal order size that will minimize total inventory costs. The advent of computerized inventory tracking fostered a practice known as just-in-time inventory management and thereby reduced the likelihood of excess or inadequate inventory stocks.

Short-term financing

Trade credit

A firm customarily buys its supplies and materials on credit from other firms, recording the debt as an account payable. This trade credit, as it is commonly called, is the largest single category of short-term credit. Credit terms are usually expressed with a discount for prompt payment. Thus, the seller may state that if payment is made within 10 days of the invoice date, a 2 percent cash discount will be allowed. If the cash discount is not taken, payment is due 30 days after the date of invoice. The cost of not taking cash discounts is the price of the credit.

Commercial bank lending appears on the balance sheet as notes payable and is second in importance to trade credit as a source of short-term financing. Banks occupy a pivotal position in the short-term and intermediate-term money markets. As a firm’s financing needs grow, banks are called upon to provide additional funds. A single loan obtained from a bank by a business firm is not different in principle from a loan obtained by an individual. The firm signs a conventional promissory note. Repayment is made in a lump sum at maturity or in installments throughout the life of the loan. A line of credit, as distinguished from a single loan, is a formal or informal understanding between the bank and the borrower as to the maximum loan balance the bank will allow at any one time.

Commercial paper

Commercial paper, a third source of short-term credit, consists of well-established firms’ promissory notes sold primarily to other businesses, insurance companies, pension funds, and banks. Commercial paper is issued for periods varying from two to six months. The rates on prime commercial paper vary, but they are generally slightly below the rates paid on prime business loans.

A basic limitation of the commercial-paper market is that its resources are limited to the excess liquidity that corporations, the main suppliers of funds, may have at any particular time. Another disadvantage is the impersonality of the dealings; a bank is much more likely to help a good customer weather a storm than is a commercial-paper dealer.

Secured loans

Most short-term business loans are unsecured, which means that an established company’s credit rating qualifies it for a loan. It is ordinarily better to borrow on an unsecured basis, but frequently a borrower’s credit rating is not strong enough to justify an unsecured loan. The most common types of collateral used for short-term credit are accounts receivable and inventories.

Financing through accounts receivable can be done either by pledging the receivables or by selling them outright, a process called factoring in the United States. When a receivable is pledged, the borrower retains the risk that the person or firm that owes the receivable will not pay; this risk is typically passed on to the lender when factoring is involved.

When loans are secured by inventory, the lender takes title to them. He may or may not take physical possession of them. Under a field warehousing arrangement, the inventory is under the physical control of a warehouse company, which releases the inventory only on order from the lending institution. Canned goods, lumber, steel, coal, and other standardized products are the types of goods usually covered in field warehouse arrangements.

Intermediate-term financing

Whereas short-term loans are repaid in a period of weeks or months, intermediate-term loans are scheduled for repayment in 1 to 15 years. Obligations due in 15 or more years are thought of as long-term debt. The major forms of intermediate-term financing include (1) term loans, (2) conditional sales contracts, and (3) lease financing.

Term loans

A term loan is a business credit with a maturity of more than 1 year but less than 15 years. Usually the term loan is retired by systematic repayments (amortization payments) over its life. It may be secured by a chattel mortgage on equipment, but larger, stronger companies are able to borrow on an unsecured basis. Commercial banks and life insurance companies are the principal suppliers of term loans. The interest cost of term loans varies with the size of the loan and the strength of the borrower.

Term loans involve more risk to the lender than do short-term loans. The lending institution’s funds are tied up for a long period, and during this time the borrower’s situation can change markedly. To protect themselves, lenders often include in the loan agreement stipulations that the borrowing company maintain its current liquidity ratio at a specified level, limit its acquisitions of fixed assets, keep its debt ratio below a stated amount, and in general follow policies that are acceptable to the lending institution.

Conditional sales contracts

Conditional sales contracts represent a common method of obtaining equipment by agreeing to pay for it in installments over a period of up to five years. The seller of the equipment continues to hold title to the equipment until payment has been completed.

Lease financing

It is not necessary to purchase assets in order to use them. Railroad and airline companies in the United States, for instance, have acquired much of their equipment by leasing it. Whether leasing is advantageous depends—aside from tax advantages—on the firm’s access to funds. Leasing provides an alternative method of financing. A lease contract, however, being a fixed obligation, is similar to debt and uses some of the firm’s debt-carrying ability. It is generally advantageous for a firm to own its land and buildings, because their value is likely to increase, but the same possibility of appreciation does not apply to equipment.

The statement is frequently made that leasing involves higher interest rates than other forms of financing, but this need not always be true. Much depends on the firm’s standing as a credit risk. Moreover, it is difficult to separate the cash costs of leasing from the other services that may be embodied in a leasing contract. If the leasing company can perform nonfinancial services (such as maintenance of the equipment) at a lower cost than the lessee or someone else could perform them, the effective cost of leasing may be lower than other financing methods.

Although leasing involves fixed charges, it enables a firm to present lower debt-to-asset ratios in its financial statements. Many lenders, in examining financial statements, give less weight to a lease obligation than to a loan obligation.

Long-term financial operations

Bonds

Long-term capital may be raised either through borrowing or by the issuance of stock. Long-term borrowing is done by selling bonds, which are promissory notes that obligate the firm to pay interest at specific times. Secured bondholders have prior claim on the firm’s assets. If the company goes out of business, the bondholders are entitled to be paid the face value of their holdings plus interest. Stockholders, on the other hand, have no more than a residual claim on the company; they are entitled to a share of the profits, if there are any, but it is the prerogative of the board of directors to decide whether a dividend will be paid and how large it will be.

Long-term financing involves the choice between debt (bonds) and equity (stocks). Each firm chooses its own capital structure, seeking the combination of debt and equity that will minimize the costs of raising capital. As conditions in the capital market vary (for instance, changes in interest rates, the availability of funds, and the relative costs of alternative methods of financing), the firm’s desired capital structure will change correspondingly.

The larger the proportion of debt in the capital structure (leverage), the higher will be the returns to equity. This is because bondholders do not share in the profits. The difficulty with this, of course, is that a high proportion of debt increases a firm’s fixed costs and increases the degree of fluctuation in the returns to equity for any given degree of fluctuation in the level of sales. If used successfully, leverage increases the returns to owners, but it decreases the returns to owners when it is used unsuccessfully. Indeed, if leverage is unsuccessful, the result may be the bankruptcy of the firm.

Long-term debt

There are various forms of long-term debt. A mortgage bond is one secured by a lien on fixed assets such as plant and equipment. A debenture is a bond not secured by specific assets but accepted by investors because the firm has a high credit standing or obligates itself to follow policies that ensure a high rate of earnings. A still more junior lien is the subordinated debenture, which is secondary (in terms of ability to reclaim capital in the event of a business liquidation) to all other debentures and specifically to short-term bank loans.

Periods of relatively stable sales and earnings encourage the use of long-term debt. Other conditions that favour the use of long-term debt include large profit margins (they make additional leverage advantageous to the stockholders), an expected increase in profits or price levels, a low debt ratio, a price–earnings ratio that is low in relation to interest rates, and bond indentures that do not impose heavy restrictions on management.

Stock

Equity financing is done with common and preferred stock. While both forms of stock represent shares of ownership in a company, preferred stock usually has priority over common stock with respect to earnings and claims on assets in the event of liquidation. Preferred stock is usually cumulative—that is, the omission of dividends in one or more years creates an accumulated claim that must be paid to holders of preferred shares. The dividends on preferred stock are usually fixed at a specific percentage of face value. A company issuing preferred stock gains the advantages of limited dividends and no maturity—that is, the advantages of selling bonds but without the restrictions of bonds. Companies sell preferred stock when they seek more leverage but wish to avoid the fixed charges of debt. The advantages of preferred stock will be reinforced if a company’s debt ratio is already high and if common stock financing is relatively expensive.

If a bond or preferred stock issue was sold when interest rates were higher than at present, it may be profitable to call the old issue and refund it with a new, lower-cost issue. This depends on how the immediate costs and premiums that must be paid compare with the annual savings that can be obtained.

Earnings and dividend policies

The size and frequency of dividend payments are critical issues in company policy. Dividend policy affects the financial structure, the flow of funds, corporate liquidity, stock prices, and the morale of stockholders. Some stockholders prefer receiving maximum current returns on their investment, while others prefer reinvestment of earnings so that the company’s capital will increase. If earnings are paid out as dividends, however, they cannot be used for company expansion (which thereby diminishes the company’s long-term prospects). Many companies have opted to pay no regular dividend to shareholders, choosing instead to pursue strategies that increase the value of the stock.

Companies tend to reinvest their earnings more when there are chances for profitable expansion. Thus, at times when profits are high, the amounts reinvested are greater and dividends are smaller. For similar reasons, reinvestment is likely to decrease when profits decline, and dividends are likely to increase.

Companies having relatively stable earnings over a period of years tend to pay high dividends. Well-established large firms are likely to pay higher-than-average dividends because they have better access to capital markets and are not as likely to depend on internal financing. A firm with a strong cash or liquidity position is also likely to pay higher dividends. A firm with heavy indebtedness, however, has implicitly committed itself to paying relatively low dividends; earnings must be retained to service the debt. There can be advantages to this approach. If, for example, the directors of a company are concerned with maintaining control of it, they may retain earnings so that they can finance expansion without having to issue stock to outside investors. Some companies favour a stable dividend policy rather than allowing dividends to fluctuate with earnings; the dividend rate will then be lower when profits are high and higher when profits are temporarily in decline. Companies whose stock is closely held by a few high-income stockholders are likely to pay lower dividends in order to lower the stockholders’ individual income taxes.

In Europe, until recently, company financing tended to rely heavily on internal sources. This was because many companies were owned by families and also because a highly developed capital market was lacking. In the less-developed countries today, firms rely heavily on internal financing, but they also tend to make more use of short-term bank loans, microcredit, and other forms of short-term financing than is typical in other countries.

Convertible bonds and stock warrants

Companies sometimes issue bonds or preferred stock that give holders the option of converting them into common stock or of purchasing stock at favourable prices. Convertible bonds carry the option of conversion into common stock at a specified price during a particular period. Stock purchase warrants are given with bonds or preferred stock as an inducement to the investor, because they permit the purchase of the company’s common stock at a stated price at any time. Such option privileges make it easier for small companies to sell bonds or preferred stock. They help large companies to float new issues on more favourable terms than they could otherwise obtain. When bondholders exercise conversion rights, the company’s debt ratio is reduced because bonds are replaced by stock. The exercise of stock warrants, on the other hand, brings additional funds into the company but leaves the existing debt or preferred stock on the books. Option privileges also permit a company to sell new stock at more favourable prices than those prevailing at the time of issue, since the prices stated on the options are higher. Stock purchase warrants are most popular, therefore, at times when stock prices are expected to have an upward trend. (See also stock option.)

Growth and decline

Mergers

Companies often grow by combining with other companies. One company may purchase all or part of another; two companies may merge by exchanging shares; or a wholly new company may be formed through consolidation of the old companies. From the financial manager’s viewpoint, this kind of expansion is like any other investment decision; the acquisition should be made if it increases the acquiring firm’s net present value as reflected in the price of its stock.

The most important term that must be negotiated in a combination is the price the acquiring firm will pay for the assets it takes over. Present earnings, expected future earnings, and the effects of the merger on the rate of earnings growth of the surviving firm are perhaps the most important determinants of the price that will be paid. Current market prices are the second most important determinant of prices in mergers; depending on whether asset values are indicative of the earning power of the acquired firm, book values may exert an important influence on the terms of the merger. Other, nonmeasurable, factors are sometimes the overriding determinant in bringing companies together; synergistic effects (wherein the net result is greater than the combined value of the individual components) may be attractive enough to warrant paying a price that is higher than earnings and asset values would indicate.

The basic requirements for a successful merger are that it fit into a soundly conceived long-range plan and that the performance of the resulting firm be superior to those attainable by the previous companies independently. In the heady environment of a rising stock market, mergers have often been motivated by superficial financial aims. Companies with stock selling at a high price relative to earnings have found it advantageous to merge with companies having a lower price–earnings ratio; this enables them to increase their earnings per share and thus appeal to investors who purchase stock on the basis of earnings.

Some mergers, particularly those of conglomerates, which bring together firms in unrelated fields, owe their success to economies of management that developed throughout the 20th century. New strategies emphasized the importance of general managerial functions (planning, control, organization, and information management) and other top-level managerial tasks (research, finance, legal services, and technology). These changes reduced the costs of managing large, diversified firms and prompted an increase in mergers and acquisitions among corporations around the world.

When a merger occurs, one firm disappears. Alternatively, one firm may buy all (or a majority) of the voting stock of another and then run that company as an operating subsidiary. The acquiring firm is then called a holding company. There are several advantages in the holding company: it can control the acquired firm with a smaller investment than would be required in a merger; each firm remains a separate legal entity, and the obligations of one are separate from those of the other; and, finally, stockholder approval is not necessary—as it is in the case of a merger. There are also disadvantages to holding companies, including the possibility of multiple taxation and the danger that the high rate of leverage will amplify the earnings fluctuations (be they losses or gains) of the operating companies.

Reorganization

When a firm cannot operate profitably, the owners may seek to reorganize it. The first question to be answered is whether the firm might not be better off by ceasing to do business. If the decision is made that the firm is to survive, it must be put through the process of reorganization. Legal procedures are always costly, especially in the case of business failure; both the debtor and the creditors are frequently better off settling matters on an informal basis rather than through the courts. The informal procedures used in reorganization are (1) extension, which postpones the settlement of outstanding debt, and (2) composition, which reduces the amount owed.

If voluntary settlement through extension or composition is not possible, the matter must be taken to court. If the court decides on reorganization rather than liquidation, it appoints a trustee to control the firm and to prepare a formal plan of reorganization. The plan must meet standards of fairness and feasibility; the concept of fairness involves the appropriate distribution of proceeds to each claimant, while the test of feasibility relates to the ability of the new enterprise to carry the fixed charges resulting from the reorganization plan.